President Opts To Ignore Persecution

Christians Face Death

thelastcrusade.org

15-year-old Egyptian girl Dina el-Gowhary, who converted from Islam to Christianity, has sent a plea to President Obama, complaining of mistreatment by the Egyptian Government and asking for his mediation.

“Mr. President Obama,” she writes, “we are a minority in Egypt. We are treated very badly. You said that the Muslim minority in America are treated very well, so why are we not treated here likewise? We are imprisoned in our own home because Muslim clerics called for the murder of my father, and now the Government has set for us a new prison, we are imprisoned in our own country.”

The handwritten letter, written in Arabic, was posted on Coptic websites.

Contacted by the press, Dina said: “I am 15 years old but I still have hope that my message will reach President Obama.”

The letter was sent several weeks ago and the Obama administration has opted to ignore it.

The el-Gowhary family was barred from leaving Egypt on September 17, 2009 without any legal reason. They were told, however, that the order came from a higher authority.

Dina, is the daughter of 57-year-old Maher el-Gowhary, also known by his Christian name Peter Athanasius, who embraced Christianity secretly 35 years ago.

In August, 2008 Athanasius filed the second ever lawsuit of a Muslim-born Egyptian against the Egyptian Government to officially alter his identification documents to reflect his new Christian identity. He lost the case in June 2009. According to the Court ruling, the religious conversion of a Muslim is against Islamic Sharia law and poses a threat to the “Public Order” in Egypt.

Mr. Athanasius has appealed the ruling.

The Athanasius family has been living in hiding ever since the filing of the lawsuit.

Muslim clerics have branded Mr. Athanasius an apostate. Several fatwas (religious edicts), which call for the ’spilling his blood,’ have been issued.

The Athanasius family has been forced to live on the lam in order to evade being killed. Friends supply them with food and shelter. “We cannot sleep, eat or go out in the street,” Mr. Athanasius said.

He believes that the authorities are putting pressure on them to re-convert back to Islam. “This,” he says, “will never happen, even if we have to live on the streets. We love our Lord Jesus, and we have left Islam for good.”